Another Green(ie) Week

Howdy all!

It's been a good week here in Galway! Sorry I couldn't write yesterday, we forgot it was a bank holiday here in Ireland! Everyone has off work and there's no mail, most stores are closed, etc.

Where to begin?

Last Monday we went to the Cliffs of Moher for P-day! Probably the most amazing thing I've ever seen. They're the same huge cliffs that are in The Princess Bride and Harry Potter.

Most of this week has been spent stopping by all the potentials that we've spoken to who wanted us to come back! Unfortunately, many of them changed their minds or just didn't answer. It's so hard to have such a great conversation with someone, and to see the potential they have for changing their lives, and then having them completely turn you away because of the influence of society, family traditions, or just plain laziness. That's why it's so important to spend time finding new people every day! The Lord is constantly preparing His children to receive the restored gospel -- that's something I've seen so evidently as I've been out.

We do have people that we're teaching and preparing for baptism! One of our investigators, Ade, is a Nigerian man who has a strong testimony and faith in God. He is planning on being baptised on the 15th of this month! What a beautiful thing to see someone choose to turn away from past habits and sins and have a strong desire to become clean!

Elder Clement and his awesome companion, Elder Leonard

Something funny about Ireland is that people are either Catholic, 'Catholic', or atheist. They either strongly participate in their religion and practice what they preach, they say they are religious and really have never touched a Bible, or they have been so wounded and broken by the Catholic church that they feel there must be no God at all. These are not my words... It's crazy how many people are the same here!

The punchline is that the atheist group is the most willing to hear our message! When we share with people the importance of them finding an answer for themselves (from God), independent of anyone else, they look at us much differently. Most people here are so used to corrupt religions that seek to get worldly gain. Our message, God's message, is that Christ himself leads a Church today and that He has provided a way to have peace in this life and eternal joy in the life to come!

Sunday was pretty good in our little branch here! It was much, much different seeing a fast and testimony meeting in a branch that has 4 or 5 active families and a few active couples. All four of us, and the branch presidency, had to take up a lot of the time giving our testimonies! A tender mercy also happened during the meeting!: a couple (obviously american) walked in and sat down! Nobody knew if they were members until they both bore their testimonies and really helped fill some of the empty gaps in the meeting. Turns out they were from TEXAS! Everyone smiled and looked at me when they said that. It was nice to have a lil taste of home.

Yesterday was a nice, chill P-day! I bought a guitar for €100. It was such a sweet deal! a fairly nice Squier (made by Fender) acoustic guitar with a strap, guitar stand, gig bag, picks, and tuner! It sounds really nice (for the price), too!

Tonight we are headed to Dublin for an All-Ireland Mission Conference tomorrow. I'm pretty excited for it. Our tiny district was asked to do a musical number, so we're singing a hymn and the jerk-missionaries in my disctrict are making me and one of the sisters do a solo for one of the verses. I'm not excited.

It's been crazy to hear what's been going on at home! I can't believe Grandma and Grandpa are gone already and that Grayson leaves this week! Holy cow. I'm so glad to hear about little Michael Fielding being born! I wish I could meet him.

The work is really going great. Ireland is an awesome country, and I have no complaints waking up to a view of the beautiful city of Galway every morning.

Just so everyone knows, if you send me letters it takes about a week to get to me! Then about 3-5 days to get back to the USA from here.

Thank you for your prayers and love that I get to hear about and feel every week when I get on here. I'm grateful for the seemingly one-way friendships I have while I'm out here. What I mean by that is that I can forget everything else during the week and still get so much support from back home! It's really cool to have that.

I love you all!

Elder Clement

He's a cutie.